Bacterial Cross-Transmission between Inanimate Surfaces and Patients in Intensive Care Units under Real-World Conditions: A Repeated Cross-Sectional Study

Elisabetta Kuczewski, Laetitia Henaff, Anne Regard, Laurent Argaud, Anne-Claire Lukaszewicz, Thomas Rimmelé, Pierre Cassier, Isabelle Fredenucci, Sophie Loeffert-Frémiot, Nagham Khanafer and Philippe Vanhems
Additional contact information
Elisabetta Kuczewski: Unité d’Hygiène, Epidémiologie et Prévention, Hôpital Edouard Herriot, Groupement Hospitalier Centre, Hospices Civils de Lyon, 69003 Lyon, France
Laetitia Henaff: Public Health, Epidemiology and Evolutionary Ecology of Infectious Diseases (PHE3ID), Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie (CIRI), Inserm, U1111,Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, UMR5308, ENS de Lyon, 69007 Lyon, France
Anne Regard: Unité d’Hygiène, Epidémiologie et Prévention, Hôpital Edouard Herriot, Groupement Hospitalier Centre, Hospices Civils de Lyon, 69003 Lyon, France
Laurent Argaud: Service de Médecine Intensive—Réanimation, Pavillon H, Hôpital Edouard Herriot, Hospices Civils de Lyon, 69003 Lyon, France
Anne-Claire Lukaszewicz: Service de Réanimation, Pavillon P, Hôpital Edouard Herriot, Hospices Civils de Lyon, 69002 Lyon, France
Thomas Rimmelé: Service de Réanimation, Pavillon P, Hôpital Edouard Herriot, Hospices Civils de Lyon, 69002 Lyon, France
Pierre Cassier: Plateau de Microbiologie Environnementale et Hygiène Hospitalière, Laboratoire de Biologie et Sécurité de l’Environnement, Institut des Agents Infectieux, Hôpital de la Croix-Rousse, Groupement Hospitalier Nord, Hospices Civils de Lyon, 69004 Lyon, France
Isabelle Fredenucci: Plateau de Microbiologie Environnementale et Hygiène Hospitalière, Laboratoire de Biologie et Sécurité de l’Environnement, Institut des Agents Infectieux, Hôpital de la Croix-Rousse, Groupement Hospitalier Nord, Hospices Civils de Lyon, 69004 Lyon, France
Sophie Loeffert-Frémiot: Laboratoires Anios—Ecolab Company, 59260 Lezennes, France
Nagham Khanafer: Unité d’Hygiène, Epidémiologie et Prévention, Hôpital Edouard Herriot, Groupement Hospitalier Centre, Hospices Civils de Lyon, 69003 Lyon, France
Philippe Vanhems: Unité d’Hygiène, Epidémiologie et Prévention, Hôpital Edouard Herriot, Groupement Hospitalier Centre, Hospices Civils de Lyon, 69003 Lyon, France

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 15, 1-11

Abstract: Background/Objectives : Contaminated surfaces play an important role in the nosocomial infection of patients in intensive care units (ICUs). This study, conducted in two ICUs at Edouard Herriot Hospital (Lyon, France), aimed to describe rooms’ microbial ecology and explore the potential link between environmental contamination and patients’ colonization and/or infection. Methods: Environmental samples were realized once monthly from January 2020 to December 2021 on surfaces close to the patient (bedrails, bedside table, and dedicated stethoscope) and healthcare workers’ high-touch surfaces, which were distant from the patient (computer, worktop/nurse cart, washbasin, and hydro-alcoholic solution/soap dispenser). Environmental bacteria were compared to the cultures of the patients hospitalized in the sampled room over a period of ± 10 days from the environmental sampling. Results: Overall, 137 samples were collected: 90.7% of the samples close to patients, and 87.9% of the distant ones were positives. Overall, 223 bacteria were isolated, mainly: Enterococcus faecalis (15.7%), Pantoea agglomerans (8.1%), Enterobacter cloacae/asburiae (6.3%), Bacillus cereus and other Bacillus spp (6.3%), Enterococcus faecium (5.8%), Stenotrophomonas maltophilia (5.4%), and Acinetobacter baumannii (4.9%). Throughout the study, 142 patients were included, of which, n = 67 (47.2%) were infected or colonized by at least one bacterium. In fourteen cases, the same bacterial species were found both in environment and patient samples, with the suspicion of a cross-contamination between the patient–environment ( n = 10) and environment–patient ( n = 4). Conclusions: In this work, we found a high level of bacterial contamination on ICU rooms’ surfaces and described several cases of potential cross-contamination between environment and patients in real-world conditions.

Keywords: environment; hospital; ICU; high-touch surfaces; bacteria; contamination; hospital-acquired infection (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9401/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/15/9401/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:15:p:9401-:d:877285

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().